Knowledge and practices of nurses on prevention of nosocomial infection in emergency care hospitals

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Developing countries such as Georgia, face up to Nosocomial infections (Nis) which is a key problem of healthcare system. The main reason for reducing relevance to this practice is the lack of knowledge about infection control practices among healthcare workers. While nurses play a unique role in the hospital infection control processes, the goal of the study is to assess the knowledge and practices of nurses regarding NIs in emergency care hospitals.

METHOD: Descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted. A total of 150 nurses were enrolled through randomized simple selection.

RESULTS: Most of the nurses had a sufficient level of knowledge about NIs, but their practices to reduce the spread of infection were not up to a satisfactory level. There was a significant relationship between knowledge and practices, which include attending NIs training courses and practices to gain professional experience (p<0,05). Though, only 53.7% of interviewed nurses consider that they barely take into account the recommendations about reducing NIs. Also, only 54.5% nurses do hand hygiene activities after contacting subjects around the patient. However, there is no significant statistical connection between the knowledge about principles of hand hygiene and demographic indicators of nurses.

CONCLUSION: Having adequate education and practice in Nis control and prevention is a must for healthcare workers. The majority of the nurses has sufficient knowledge and practice about NIs control measures. However, possessing adequate knowledge is ineffectual until the proper application of infection control practices. Nurses need further improvement through the regular educational programs.